


Five Times Liv Babysat for Robert

by miss_whimsy



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Developing Relationship, Family, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 23:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11679465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_whimsy/pseuds/miss_whimsy
Summary: Or, How the Best Sister in the World Saved Her Brother’s Marriage (No need to thank me or anything, Aaron)





	1. January

Harry is six weeks old. 

Robert vaguely remembers sleep as something he used to do when he lived (oh so happily) with Aaron at the pub. Luckily for both him and his newborn son, he’s had plenty of practice with sleepless nights since then, so Robert’s usually already awake when Harry wakes up for a feed in the middle of the night. 

He hasn’t spoken to an adult he’s not related to since Rebecca swept out of the village, a week before Christmas, with barely a backward glance. Not that he’s complaining about that part. Vic’s complaining enough for everyone. He thinks he’s probably got another week before Nicola gives in and drops by to give him hell. (Bernice can only hold her off for so long after all.)

“What do you want to do tonight, Harry?” Robert asks, settling him carefully in his bouncer and picking up a bowl of cereal. “Hmm? Bat at your teddy while daddy eats some cornflakes and watches the news? Good choice.”

The news, it turns out, is beyond boring. Hospital crisis in Huddersfield. HS2. Joyriders in Sheffield. 

“I think I’ve seen this episode,” he tells Harry who gurgles at him and smiles. 

Really smiles. Properly smiles. For the first time.

Robert’s heart clenches and he sets his bowl down on the floor before he drops it on the settee. He reaches out and Harry’s tiny fingers wrap around one of Robert’s.

“Who needs anyone else anyway, kid?” 

There’s a knock on the door and Robert doesn’t really want to let go. It’ll just be Vic with the shopping anyway.

“It’s open,” he calls out, his smile growing wider as Harry smiles back. “Who’s this then? Is this Auntie Vic? Are you going to show Auntie Vic your smile?”

“It’s not, sorry.”

Robert jerks back and stands so quickly that Harry cries out in surprise and bursts into tears. 

“God, Robert, I’m sorry,” Liv says, standing in the doorway with five bags of shopping and looking like she wishes the ground would swallow her up. 

Robert scoops Harry up into his arms, settling him easily, rocking him against his chest. 

“You’re fine,” he tells her, quickly. “It’s fine. That was me, not you. I was expecting Vic that’s all.”

“Yeah, I met her outside,” Liv says, holding up the bags. “I told her I would bring them in.”

Robert nods. “Why?”

It’s not that Robert doesn’t want to see Liv. On the contrary, he misses her every day, the way he misses Aaron every day. But he burnt that bridge a long time ago and as much as he wishes things were different, he can’t bring himself to regret Harry. 

It’s been two months now since he saw her last and she looks better than she did, older, stronger. It was longer still since he’d spoken to her and told her how sorry he was for everything he’d done, for all the ways he’d hurt her and Aaron; since she’d told him how much she hated him, that she never wanted to see him again.

Now, she shrugs and carries the bags through into the kitchen, dumping them on the counter. “I dunno.”

“Okay.”

“Do you want me to go?”

“No,” he says quickly. “No, please, don’t go.”

She nods and starts to unpack the groceries. “I didn’t plan it. Coming here. I just saw Vic and…”

“Thought you’d help out?”

“I wanted to see you,” she tells a lettuce as she dumps it in the crisper. “I miss you, Robert.”

Robert doesn’t know what to say beyond the obvious.

Luckily, Harry is there to break the tension and, clearly bored with being ignored, chooses that moment to squeal, reaching up to grab Robert’s chin.

“Hey now,” Robert says, chuckling softly. “You need to be on your best behaviour for your Auntie Liv, okay? We need to make a good impression so that she comes back.”

Liv’s beside him a second later, peering at Harry like he’s a bomb that’s about to go off. “So you’re the competition are you?”

“Liv, you know that…”

“Joke,” Liv says meeting Robert’s eyes. “Fatherhood hasn’t made you any harder to wind up, obviously.”

“Always on my case.”

“Well someone needs to be.”

Robert smiles and Liv smiles back. For the second time that night, Robert thinks he might start crying.

“Can I hold him?” Liv asks, already holding out her arms and Robert doesn’t hesitate to hand him over, showing her how to hold him properly. 

“He’s heavier than you think,” Robert says and Liv laughs.

“Inherited your ego did he?”

Robert laughs and for the first time in a long time, he feels lighter. 

“I miss you, too.”

“Of course you do,” Liv says, slipping past him back into the living room. “You look like shit, by the way.”

“Thank you,” Robert says, looking down at himself. He must have had this grey t-shirt on for three days now and he knows he hasn’t washed his hair since before that. Even with Vic and Diane on hand, none of that stuff had seemed important.

“I can look after him if you want to have a shower,” Liv says pointedly. “Or a nap.”

“What and miss out on your friendly face?”

“I’ll be here when you get out, dickhead,” she says. “Can’t exactly steal him, can I? Where am I gonna go?”

Robert huffs out a laugh and drags himself up the stairs without any more arguments.

“We can negotiate my fee when you come back down,” Liv calls out after him, as loudly as she dares. 

Cheeky mare.

“Not doing it out the goodness of your heart then.”

“Goodness doesn’t get me and Gabby to the pictures does it?” she says and then quieter, “Does it, Harry? Eh? No. Daddy’s silly isn’t he? What’s daddy? Silly, that’s right.”

Robert’s still laughing when he steps into the shower. 

That’s his girl.

*

“Where were you?” Aaron asks when Liv gets home at ten o’clock.

“Gabby’s,” Liv says and pulls out her phone, taking a minute to text Gabby to cover for her.

“She alright?”

“Yes, Aaron,” Liv says, rolling her eyes. “Are you?”

“You’re being weird.”

“You’re being weird.”

“Fine, whatever. It’s time you were in bed, anyway.”

“Whatever,” Liv says, already climbing the spiral staircase. She stops halfway up. “Aaron?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you miss him?”

The silence is deafening. 

“Go to bed, Liv.”

Liv nods and continues on her way with a smile on her face.

That means yes.


	2. Chapter 2

February begins with a thick blanket of snow and a cold, grey sky. 

Liv trudges up to Jacobs Fold every Wednesday night now and dances Harry around the living room until he’s giggling with delight while Robert makes them a proper dinner. It’s cosy and warm and everything she used to let herself dream about, with the obvious exception of Aaron’s presence.

Aaron still hasn’t even seen Harry as far as Liv knows. 

She and Robert have an unspoken agreement not to mention him. Instead, Robert asks how Liv is getting on at school and what her and Gabby have been up to. Liv asks how Harry’s doing and how Robert’s filling his days.

It’s nice. 

*

Liv's phone rings while she's eating her dinner and she answers even though Jacob's still talking - he only cares that Gabby's listening after all.

“Robert?” she says, surprised. “What's wrong?”

“Is that how you answer the phone? Because hello is more usual.”

“You never ring me,” Liv reminds him, “so something must be wrong.”

“Can't I just like talking to you?”

“Robert!”

“Fine,” he sighs. “Can you babysit tonight?”

“Babysit?”

“I asked Vic but she can’t get out of work and I don’t really have anyone else. No one I trust anyway. You’re so good with him.”

Liv frowns, turning a little bit away from her friends. “You want me to babysit. Tonight.”

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important, but I met this woman last week who…”

“Jacob, for God’s sake,” Gabby yells suddenly, bumping into Liv as she scrambles to get away from the pool of orange juice that is now dripping down onto her seat. “I just got this skirt.”

“I’m sorry,” Jacob says, trying to clear up the mess. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Hello? Liv? Are you there?”

Liv puts the phone back up to her ear and murmurs an agreement before hanging up quickly.

“What’s wrong?” Gabby asks, waving Jacob away when he continues to hover. “Go away. Can’t you see Liv’s upset?”

“What’s wrong?” Jacob asks, turning his attention to her. “Are you okay?”

“I hate Robert,” Liv says, grabbing her bag. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him. Aaron’s better off without him. We all are.”

She storms away, knowing that Gabby will follow her, unable to stop until she’s burned through some of her anger.

“Liv!” Gabby shouts. “Look, I’m all for bunking off, but could you just slow down? If I wanted to be out of breath and sweaty I could just go to netball like I’m supposed to.”

Liv stops and Gabby catches up to her a second later, putting her arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

*

Aaron is at work, so Liv and Gabby have the house to themselves.

“Do you want to play a game or something?” Liv asks, holding out the VR headset to an unimpressed Gabby. 

“I want you to tell me what’s going on,” she says, pulling Liv to sit down next to her. “What’s Robert done?”

“He wants me to babysit tonight.”

“Okay,” Gabby says, clearly confused. “Why is that bad?”

“He’s going out with some woman. Today of all days.”

Gabby frowns slightly. “What’s today?”

Liv’s eyes flick to the photo of her and Aaron on the shelf behind the TV. Robert’s not in because Robert took it and she still remembers the way he’d laughed when he did, telling them they were his family and he needed a new phone wallpaper. Aaron had grumbled and pretended he didn’t want to, but he couldn’t stop smiling for more than thirty seconds at a time. It was the best day Liv could remember.

“It’s their wedding anniversary.” 

Gabby shifts closer until their knees are pressed together. “Maybe it’s not what it sounds like?”

“He said he met a woman,” Liv argues, shaking her head. “And now he’s taking her out. On their first wedding anniversary.”

“They’ve been broken up a long time,” Gabby starts and stops when Liv glares at her. “I’m just saying…”

“Well don’t.”

Gabby holds up her hands. “Alright. I’m on your side, you know that.”

“Why would he do this?”

“Why don’t I ask him?”

Liv frowns in confusion. “What? Why?”

“Well he is my uncle,” Gabby says. “Sort of. And he’ll tell me because he knows if he doesn’t I’ll tell mum and then he’ll have to deal with her.”

“That’ll never work,” Liv says. “What would you even say to him?”

Gabby shrugs. “Hello, Uncle Rob. Are you seeing anyone right now?”

“That’s awful,” Liv tells her. “Uncle Rob?”

“Well, what would you call him?”

“Dickhead?”

“Let me try it my way,” Gabby sighs. “Then we can try it yours.”

*

“Hello, Uncle Rob.”

Gabby has never called Robert “Uncle” in her life.

“What do you want?”

Gabby rolls her eyes and pushes past him, swooping down on Harry who gurgles up at her, shaking his fists until she picks him up.

“Gabby!”

“I’m babysitting,” Gabby tells him. “Liv can’t make it.”

“Is she alright?” Robert asks, the concern in his voice obvious. “She was a bit quiet on the phone before.”

“That was Jacob’s fault.” Gabby pushes her nose against Harry’s and giggles when he does. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your date?”

Robert laughs, looking down at his suit. “Do I really look that bad?”

“Oh, you are ready! Sorry, yeah you look great.”

“Cheers, Gabby,” Robert says with a snort. “I’ll go and change. Nicola will kill me if I lose this deal.”

“Deal?” Gabby asks, but Robert has already made it halfway up the stairs, so she sinks down onto the couch instead, fumbling to pull her phone out of her bag while balancing Harry on her knee. “Your Auntie Liv owes me big time for this,” Gabby mutters, pressing a quick kiss to Harry’s head to show she doesn’t mean it. 

She still hasn’t managed to get through to Liv half an hour later when a car horn blares outside and Robert barrels down the stairs, looking slightly more put together than he had earlier.

“Well?” he asks Gabby, throwing his arms out to the sides.

“You look great,” Gabby says honestly because she has eyes and he’s only really her step-uncle anyway. “When will you be back?”

“Not late,” Robert says, stepping close to kiss Harry’s head. “Thanks for doing this, Gabby.” 

“No problem.” Gabby follows him to the door, holding up Harry’s arm to wave at Robert as he climbs into the back seat of Jimmy and Nicola’s car and is whisked away. 

On the other side of the street, Gabby sees Liv step out from the shadows around the church and hold up her phone. 

“Come on in,” Gabby tells her, holding the door open wide. “It’s freezing out here.”

*

It’s nine o’clock when Liv hears Robert’s key in the lock. She’s on her own now since Gabby had gone home and Harry had been asleep for hours, so she turns off the TV quickly and tries to look casual.

“Liv,” Robert says, surprised but happily so, when he sees her. “Gabby said you couldn’t make it.”

“Yeah, um, something came up but…” 

She stops when he sits down next to and she sighs. 

“I thought you were on a date.”

“What?”

Liv doesn’t need to look at him to hear the hurt in his voice. 

“I’m sorry,” she says. “You just said you met this woman and I thought you were taking her on a date and you didn’t care…”

“It’s our wedding anniversary,” Robert interjects quietly, silencing Liv who nods slowly. “I don’t want to date anyone, Liv. Woman or man. I don’t want anyone except Aaron. That’s as true now as it was this time last year. The way I felt when I asked him to marry me or when we moved in together. I love him and I’ve loved him every day.”

Liv closes her eyes and leans against him. “I just want things just go back to the way they were.” 

Robert wraps his arms around her, hugging her close. There’s nothing he can say that will make her feel any better, so she simply hugs him back, gratfeul he doesn’t try.


End file.
